


in my sky at twilight

by ashlearose13



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Ballet, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, LITERALLY, Mutual Pining, Single Parents, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, no farm family here lmao, they have kids and its cute as heck!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22463233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashlearose13/pseuds/ashlearose13
Summary: Clint has a kid, and he thinks that as long as he can get her to ballet on time each week, everything will be just fine. Normal, even (as normal as it can get post-divorce, anyway).And then he has to go and fall in love with the ballet teacher, because of course he does.-the single parent au no one asked for
Relationships: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 40
Kudos: 177





	1. oh reaper of my evening song

**Author's Note:**

> hello so i'm starting ANOTHER project bc apparently i like having a billion things on the go so. here is a single parent fic that no one asked for but basically clint is a great dad and he's doing his very Best!! also he's divorced we don't know the farm family!! it's gonna be a slow burn bby so buckle up and get ready for some angst and drama and cute ass babies
> 
> whenever i have time i'll update this but it's gonna be all over the place! big shoutout to all my pals who encouraged me to write this ♥w♥ i hope you enjoy the start of this fic!!

> “in my sky at twilight you are like a cloud  
> and your form and colour are the way I love them.  
> you are mine, mine, woman with sweet lips  
> and in your life my infinite dreams live.”
> 
> \- Pablo Neruda, "In My Sky at Twilight"

\--

“Daaaaad, we’re gonna be late!”

Clint grunted, twisting the bolt one last time and pulling back slightly to survey his handiwork. In the back of his mind he registered Ava’s call, but he couldn’t quite remember what they had to do and the pipe under the sink had been busted for so long now that it was hard to ignore. He was no handyman, but how hard could it be to fix one leaky pipe?

“Dad!” Ava screamed.

Startled, Clint tried to stand up suddenly and smacked his head on the bottom of the cabinet. “Awww, shit.”

“You said a curse,” Ava sing-songed from behind him. “That’s a dollar in my jar.”

“A dollar?” Clint asked incredulously, pulling his head out slowly and standing straight once he was sure he was clear. “What happened to quarters?”

“Mummy gives me a dollar, and now I’m rich because mummy says a lotta curses,” Ava explained. She held her hand out, palm up. “ _C’mon_ dad.”

Clint patted down his pockets for loose change, but the clothes he was wearing were strictly for housework and rarely saw the light of day. He didn’t even know if he _had_ a spare dollar lying around. It was so much easier to pay by card now, and it had been a hot minute since Ava had been staying with him.

“Sorry, pumpkin, I owe you one.”

“It’ll cost you extra,” Ava chimed, her cute little face twisting into a sassy smirk.

Ava Barton was sweet like sugar, all dimples and sun-kissed freckles, a smile that sent Clint to his knees every time he saw it and eyes plucked straight from the sky. She was strong-willed, could scream the house down if she didn’t get her own way and loved to get her hands dirty; for a five year old, she had more spunk and tenacity than most adults Clint knew, and he was wholly and utterly obsessed with her.

Clint laughed, running a hand through his hair. “ _Okay_ , little miss. Now what was all the screaming about?”

As he spoke, Clint noticed for the first time Ava’s outfit, obviously put on with some difficulty; her head through an arm hole, pink tutu and bare feet, hair still clinging to her scrunchie from when he had tried to braid it earlier. Adorable, but not practical.

Everything clicked into place half a second later, and he groaned, dropping to his knees to fix Ava’s leotard. “Shit! Ballet. You were s’posed to tell me earlier, kiddo.”

“I did so,” Ava argued. “You said it was under control.”

“Daddy lied,” Clint muttered. He looked down at Ava’s feet and frowned. “Where are your shoes, hun?”

“Mummy didn’t send ‘em,” Ava replied. “She said they're my shoes for _her_ house and you gotta get your own.”

Clint could have screamed himself, but instead he hoisted Ava up under one arm and snagged her bag and the car keys with his other hand. His problems with Laura only seemed to be getting worse, despite the fact that she had moved to a different state and relinquished custody of their daughter to him. It was petty and childish and Clint thought they might’ve had a chance to be civil, once, and now it just seemed like a pipedream.

“Can we go to the ballet store now?” Ava asked as Clint buckled her into her booster seat. “I wanna get new shoes and I can show Miss Natalia, she’ll _really_ like it.”

“We’re already running late,” Clint told her, hating the way her face crumpled in the rear view. “Maybe we can stop on the way home?”

“You don’t even know where it is,” Ava whined.

“Don’t think there’s such thing as a ballet store anyway,” Clint muttered, rubbing a hand over his eyes as he turned the car out of the driveway. “ _Fuck_ , Laura.”

“That’s a really bad curse, daddy,” Ava said. He shouldn’t have been surprised that she had heard him, but he still felt a little guilty. He didn’t want to talk badly about Laura in front of Ava. He wasn’t going to be that dad. “Five bucks for that one.”

“Right,” Clint laughed. “Six dollars in the swear jar. Daddy’s gonna need to watch his mouth, hey?”

* * *

Clint and Ava burst into the ballet studio with seconds to spare, except that was about as far as Clint knew where to go. Laura had been the dance mum, taking Ava diligently to and from classes, smoothing her hair into perfect buns and making sure she had the right costume for the right recital. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help, but more that Laura herself hadn’t wanted it.

Ava had only been dancing for a year and a half but it felt like a lifetime to Clint, and now Laura had left it all to him and he had no idea what he was doing and he just wanted to Ava to be happy and for things to feel normal even though they weren’t anymore. She was five and she barely understood what it meant to have two houses and a mother that didn’t care the way she used to and it just wasn’t _fair_.

There was a girl behind the desk that raised an eyebrow when they stumbled in. “Hey Ava! Who’s this?”

“My daddy,” Ava chirped. “I don’t have any shoes.”

“Oh.” The girl peeked over the desk, eyes flicking from Ava’s bare feet and back to Clint in his house-work-only clothes. “Is daddy on your sign in list?”

“I dunno,” Ava said. “I’m just a kid.”

“I’m Clint,” Clint said, pushing Ava up to the desk so they weren’t standing in the door. “Sorry we’re late.”

“You’re not on Ava’s sign in list,” the girl said. She shoved a piece of paper in front of him and jabbed her finger on Ava’s name. “Laura is her primary –”

“Laura moved,” Clint said quietly, trying not to let Ava overhear this time. This was awkward and annoying and he just wanted to get her into the classroom so he didn’t have to deal with it. “I didn’t realise there was a sign in sheet.”

“ _Right_ ,” the girl drawled. “Well, Laura didn’t let us know she was moving.”

“Laura didn’t let anyone know,” Clint snapped. He ran a hand over the back of his neck and took a deep breath. “Can Ava just dance? Please?”

The girl stood up and disappeared into a back room. Clint sighed and led Ava over to a row of chairs, watching her clamber up warily. How was he supposed to explain to his kid that she couldn’t dance because her mum hadn’t changed her contact details? He didn’t understand why a dance school would even have such strict regulations anyway, and shouldn’t it count for something that Ava had called him daddy without prompting? He didn’t kidnap her, he could show them the ultrasound picture he had in his wallet if they really needed –

A pair of tiny ballet shoes dropped onto the chair beside Ava and she looked up, beaming. “Thanks Wanda! Look they’re pink, I _love_ them.”

“Until you get a new pair,” the girl said to Clint. “There’s an emergency contact form for you to fill out on the desk.”

“Thanks,” Clint said, relief sweeping over him in a rush. He pushed the shoes onto Ava’s feet, then took her hands to help her off the chair. “I appreciate it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Wanda said. She pulled Ava’s hair out of the scraggly braid Clint hadn’t had time to fix, and then rearranged it all atop her head in a semi-neat bun, snapping the elastic around it three times. “C’mon Ava, I bet Miss Natalia is waiting for you.”

Ava didn’t even say goodbye, running laps around Wanda as they disappeared around the corner. Clint took a minute to compose himself. He wasn’t going to let anything as trivial as an emergency contact form make him doubt his parenting abilities.

He thought about ringing Laura but settled on sending a passive aggressive text instead, taking the paperwork with him and following the direction that Wanda had taken Ava. He went through the first door he came across, taking a seat against the wall and trying to sneak a peak through the little window on the door of the studio. There were no other parents in the room, just a baby in a playpen that stared at him as he got comfortable.

Clint glanced at the baby and then down at the form, frowning. It was simple enough and he had filled out forms before for Ava, but it occurred to him that it was the first form he had ever filled out as her primary caregiver and that this was what it would be like from now on; him and her and _his_ decisions affecting her life.

The baby had a rattle, and the noise caught Clint’s attention. He smiled and the baby smiled back, all gums and rosy cheeks, then suddenly lost balance and tipped sideways, falling into the playpen bars.

There was no one else around, and Clint was moving towards the baby before she even started crying, lifting her out and bouncing her against his chest to try and stop the tears. The baby wailed, rubbing snot on his neck, and it had been four years since Ava was this small but he never would have dreamed of leaving her alone, especially in a public place.

“It’s okay,” he soothed, rubbing his hand on the baby’s back. She had thick hair for such a young child, the colour caught somewhere between blonde and red. “Sitting up is hard work, I know.”

The baby stopped crying, pulling back to look at Clint’s face. He smiled again, hoping to appear non-threatening even though the baby had no idea who he was and probably didn’t have the capacity yet to understand that he was a stranger. He didn’t know about those kinds of milestones, though, so maybe the baby _did_ know something was off. Did Ava used to look at him like that?

“Oh my god.”

Clint looked up, noticing for the first time the girl that stood in the doorway. She looked young, but Clint had seen younger mothers and he was immediately holding the baby out to her, trying not to come across as creepy or guilty even though he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“This isn’t what it looks like.”

The girl took the baby back, holding her against her hip. “Right.”

“She was crying,” Clint explained hastily, and as if on cue the baby started all over again. “She lost her balance and fell over, so…”

“Cut it out, Rose,” the girl whined, yanking the baby’s hand away from where it had been about to curl into her hair. “It’s fine, whatever. I won’t tell if you don’t tell.”

Clint frowned. “I don’t –”

“I’m just the babysitter,” the girl snapped. “And I have to sit here for hours with this stupid kid while they dance and it’s _boring_. So sometimes I leave and meet my boyfriend outside. What’s the worst she can do on her own, right?”

Clint didn’t know what to say. The girl bumped Rose around but it was clear that she didn’t know how to soothe a baby, or really care about her crying. He remembered the day he had realised Laura didn’t care anymore, and it _hurt_.

“I can watch her, if you want,” he offered carefully. “Then you can come back before they’re finished.”

“There’s only five minutes left anyway,” the girl said. “It doesn’t matter.” At the blank look on Clint’s face, she rolled her eyes and explained. “They dance for half an hour on Tuesday and an hour on Thursday. Sometimes on Friday too, depending on comps. Who’re you here with anyway?”

“Ava” Clint said. He would never get tired of saying her name, he was sure of it.

“No, I meant your wife,” the girl said, raising an eyebrow. “Which dance mum do you belong to?”

“None of them,” Clint replied carefully. The way the girl looked at him, the way she so flippantly held the child as though she literally couldn’t care less, made Clint’s skin crawl. “Anyway, it was nice to meet you…”

“Hannah,” the girl said. “This is Rose. You know there’s another room where all the mums sit, so you can actually watch your kid? It’s upstairs.”

“Thanks,” Clint said. He watched Hannah leave with Rose, the baby still fussing in her arms, and blew out a breath of air. It wasn’t his business. It wasn’t his baby.

By the time he had completed the forms, Ava was finished and had a new butterfly sticker on the back of her hand to show for it. He returned the shoes to Wanda and thanked her for her help, then ushered Ava to the car and pretended to ignore the stares from the other women, keeping his head down and his pace brisk, not giving them a chance to draw any type of conclusion about him yet.

“I love butterflies,” Ava said from his side. “Miss Tasha always lets me have a butterfly.”

“Miss Tasha, hey?” Clint asked. He buckled her into her booster, double-checking the straps.

“Oops!” Ava giggled, slapping a hand against her forehead in exaggeration. “I mean Miss Natalia. She has two names like Sleeping Beauty.”

Clint frowned. “What’s Sleeping Beauty’s other name?”

“Princess Aurora, silly,” Ava chided. She placed her tiny hand on his cheek and pinched, beaming at him. Clint felt his heart backflip with how much he absolutely adored her, and Laura had just given up this sweetness like it wasn’t the best drug in the world.

“Silly daddy,” he agreed. “How was dancing?”

“Good,” Ava said, and Clint started the car and vaguely wondered if there was anything other than beer and yoghurt cups in the fridge, listening to Ava chirp on about first position and how soft her shoes were and how much she loved pink and how she could plié now without falling over; and all of it settled in the same space that thoughts of Hannah and Rose settled, until all he could think about was the sad baby and the girl who was supposed to care but didn’t, and at the end he realised it all came back to Laura.

Another girl who was supposed to care and didn’t.


	2. that you love them now you're blinking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys!! i'm so glad everyone really like the first chapter it makes me so happy ♥w♥ here is chapter 2 which i love idk why i just think these dance mums are gonna be so exciting to write lmao. i hope you enjoy this chapter too and thank you for reading and omg i'm so excited to continue this lil project!!
> 
> this is the last chapter i have written tho oops... so it might be a couple of days between updates!! but enjoy i love you as much as i love ava barton (so many)

> "oh you steal his features,  
> and your mother is a bleacher.  
> she don't even feel the heat no.  
> she don't even want to speak to you"
> 
> \- Daughter, "Lifeforms"

By Thursday Clint was a little more prepared for ballet, and Ava had new pink shoes that he had to take off her feet when she was sleeping at night because she loved them too much, apparently. He signed her in and smirked at Wanda and was about to follow all of the other mothers upstairs to the viewing room when Hannah slipped past him, almost perfectly disguised amongst every other woman in active wear.

Clint paused at reception. “Hey, you know that babysitter?”

Wanda glanced up from where she was painting her toenails aquamarine. “Yea?”

“Does she actually look after the baby?” Clint asked, scratching his head.

He didn’t really know why he cared – except that he _did_ know, and it was annoying – but he figured if he asked and Wanda just laughed him off then it wouldn’t be such a big deal. He had only been at dance for one day and he was already getting mixed up in everyone’s business.

Laura would say, _you care too much_.

“Of course she looks after the baby,” Wanda said. Her eyes flicked over to the hall, towards the room where Clint knew the baby would be alone in her playpen. “Why?”

He shrugged. “It’s nothing, don’t worry.”

Wanda stood from behind the desk and waddled over to the room. Clint glanced out the window, watching for Hannah like him and Wanda were doing the wrong thing and not her. He didn’t want anyone to get into trouble, he just wanted to watch Ava dance. He also just wanted Rose to not be left on her own, in case she choked or something.

His heart sank when Wanda returned with Rose. The look on her face was nothing short of furious, and it made him feel a little better to know that he wasn’t the only one concerned about the baby’s wellbeing. What kind of parent would leave their child with someone who clearly did not want to be there?

“This is not what she’s paid for,” Wanda hissed. “How hard is it to sit on a chair and watch a kid that can't even crawl yet.”

It occurred to Clint that Wanda was most likely Rose’s mother, and he suddenly felt even worse. “Right. I’m gonna head upstairs now and see what I can.”

“Hey, Ava’s dad,” Wanda called before he could leave. “Am I an idiot for not realising that the babysitter was sneaking past reception every day?”

Clint didn’t think that Wanda was an idiot by any means, but it was a little hard to believe that Hannah had been sneaky enough to literally walk out the front door without the baby _and_ without being noticed. He wouldn’t say that to her though; he could tell from her expression and the way she held Rose that she was already giving herself a hard time about it.

“I think she would’ve found another way, right?” Clint said instead. “She, uh, didn’t really wanna be there, so.”

“Thanks,” Wanda said in a breath. She offered a pacifier to Rose then moved over to the window, knocking on it loudly to get Hannah’s attention outside. “Thanks for the heads up, too.”

Clint didn’t answer, already heading up the stairs and away from whatever was going to happen between Hannah and Wanda. He wondered if Laura had known about it all, if the other women just turned a blind eye because it wasn’t their child and nothing bad could happen if they didn’t look for problems, if they just sat and watched their daughters and gossiped instead.

He had never been inside the viewing room. Everyone turned to watch him enter and then looked between themselves, as though they were trying to figure out which one of them hadn’t mentioned she had a younger husband, or maybe even that she had a younger _lover_. The intensity of their gazes made Clint’s ears burn.

“Haven’t seen you here before,” one woman finally said, patting the only empty seat that just happened to be beside her. “Are you lost, sugar?”

“Uh, no,” Clint answered lamely. He took a seat and peaked down into the studio, finding Ava standing to the side of the room while a woman twisted her hair into a neater bun. Clint really needed to watch the YouTube videos he had saved after Tuesday’s hair fiasco.

The woman herself had vibrant red hair, and he assumed she would be Miss Natalia, the only adult in a room full of five year olds. Her face was kind, her hands gentle as she tugged Ava’s locks onto her head, no tears or tantrums to be seen. Maybe he could ask her for some help after the lesson. She made it look so _easy_.

“Who’re you here with?” the woman asked, hand slapping onto Clint’s thigh and startlingly him back into the room. “My baby is Kendra, down there with the pink bow. And I'm Wendy.”

“Clint,” he told her, and then shook her hand like they were a part of the same weird club. “I’m Ava’s dad.”

There was a rush of excitement all of a sudden, a tittering between the women that made Clint feel like he’d missed something important. He didn’t know if it was because he was the only dad or if Laura had said something once to these woman, maybe about how he left dirty clothes on the floor or cursed too much, how there was always something to fix that only _he_ could fix. Maybe Laura had told them all of his dirty secrets and absolutely none of her own.

“The teacher’s pet,” another woman said, shutting down his fears in a second. Except now –

“Huh?” he asked. “What does that mean?”

“Oh sugar,” Wendy laughed, grabbing his thigh again.

“Ava is the favourite,” a third woman blurted, and there was another round of hushed chatter that Clint couldn’t quite make out.

“ _Sarah_ ,” Wendy scolded.

“What?” Sarah shrugged innocently, inspecting a manicured nail. “Genevieve said it first. And we _all_ think it.”

Clint bristled but bit his tongue. He didn’t understand the dynamics of this group yet; he couldn’t help but feel he would _never_ understand what these dance mums really meant, and if he were to be honest he really didn’t want to know at all. At the end of the day they were just there for their kids. How competitive could it be?

“Ava _is_ kind of the favourite,” Wendy admitted. “Miss Natalia always gives her the butterfly sticker.”

“Does that mean anything?” Clint laughed, but abruptly stopped when he noticed the looks on their faces. “Oh. Well, I’ve never met Miss Natalia, so…”

There was a snort from somewhere in the room, some more giggling. Clint tried to picture Laura sitting here amongst these women, laughing and gossiping instead of watching Ava prance daintily around the studio. It had been three months since she had moved out, two weeks since Ava had started living with him permanently, and he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He didn’t _want_ to think about her. He just wanted to focus on his daughter.

“I wouldn’t worry, if I were you,” Genevieve sniffed. “She’s horrible.”

“She's one of the best teachers in the country,” Wendy continued. “She could teach in New York for triple the price, but she stays out here for some stupid reason.”

“She’s got an attitude fit for New York,” Sarah said, and it dawned on Clint that he was actually gossiping for perhaps the first time in his life. “She thinks she’s _so_ good, but trust me, she’s not. She has nothing going for her.”

Clint frowned, looking down at the woman who was currently helping Kendra correctly position her arms. She looked so kind that Clint didn’t want to believe what the other mothers were saying. But then again, he had been wrong about people before.

“She seems nice,” Clint said anyway. He caught Ava’s attention and waved, heart bursting at the beaming smile she shot him.

“Miss Natalia is a whore,” Genevieve snapped, and held her hands up as the others feebly protested. “I’m sorry, but someone her age, living on her own with a –“

“Oh, here we go,” Wendy interrupted, poking Clint’s shoulder. “Here, see. Ava gets the butterfly sticker.”

Clint didn’t know why Wendy would point that out to him but he watched anyway as Miss Natalia stuck a large sticker onto the back of Ava’s tiny hand. She held out the sticker book to Kendra, and Clint could see even from where he was sitting that there were more butterflies available, but Kendra pointed to a pony instead and had it peeled off for her.

“First week done,” Sarah said with a sigh. “You know what that means, ladies.”

There was a bit of groaning, a lot of eye rolls, and Clint found himself following the women back down the stairs, past Wanda and Rose and into the studio. The girls waved to their mums, bouncing on the spot from where they stood in a line against the mirror. Ava looked like she was about to burst at the seams with excitement, and Clint wanted to scoop her up and twirl her around and tell her just how proud he was of her.

Still, he didn’t know why they were in the studio, just that the mood had suddenly turned rather icy. Up close, Miss Natalia was a lot younger than Clint would have expected, closer to his age then the mums he was standing with. Her features were beautiful, and if it were any other time and he wasn’t a recently divorced twenty-six year old with a kid he might even be game enough to ask her out.

“We’ve had a great first week back,” Miss Natalia said, and Clint detected the hint of an accent he couldn’t immediately place. “I was so impressed with everyone’s progress, especially –”

“I’m glad there’s _some_ kind of progress,” Genevieve interrupted, not even trying to be subtle. “After everything that’s gone on over the last year I wasn’t expecting much from you.”

Clint felt like he’d been punched in the gut, even though the insult hadn’t been directed at him. Any doubts he had about this being a competitive sport were confirmed in a second; it was clear that this was tooth and nail, every dance mum for herself, something so ridiculously beyond competitive that he vaguely wondered if it was worth Ava even continuing.

Something hard passed over Miss Natalia’s face for a moment, her lips pressing into a line sharp enough to cut. Clint thought that she might bite back, something in her expression telling him that she wasn’t one to let herself be pushed around, but then the moment passed and he was left wondering if he had just made it up.

“Especially Ruby,” she continued softly. “Ruby really impressed me with her arms today. Kendra’s first position is perfect, and Morgan’s spunk continues to brighten up the studio.”

Wendy leant into Clint so she could whisper in his ear. “Spunk is really just code for brat. Morgan’s dads a billionaire and her mum is always late, so it’s no wonder.”

Clint frowned, then glanced over to find Miss Natalia’s bright green eyes focused on them. Wendy didn’t seem to care, giggling behind her hand like a teenager, and he couldn’t help but feel like one too, like they had just been sprung by the principal doing something they shouldn’t be.

He didn’t care about the politics of dance. He didn’t care if they thought Morgan was a brat because of her parents, if they thought Ava was the favourite because of a simple butterfly sticker or that Ruby didn’t deserve praise over their own daughters. They were just kids and they liked to dance and they were excited to be there, and that was all that should matter.

“If we could practise two things over the weekend, please,” Miss Natalia said, keeping her eyes on him for a second after she finished speaking. She then turned to the children, finger waving through the air before she pointed out a little blonde girl with glasses. “Lily, can you tell us what our first step is?”

“Passé,” Lily yelled, and the girls all started cheering.

“That’s right,” Miss Natalia said, then did the same aeroplane motion with her finger until she landed on Kendra. “Second step?”

“Relevé!” Kendra squealed, and clapped her hands for added effect.

“Great work girls,” Miss Natalia said sincerely. “Don’t forget to stretch too. I’ll see you all next week.”

There was a mad rush to get out the studio door, girls chattering over one another as their mothers pushed them along. Clint held back, feeling the need to introduce himself to Miss Natalia and at least apologise for Ava being late on Tuesday. He lifted his daughter onto his hip, letting her wind her arms around his neck and squeeze as hard as her little arms could manage.

“You were so good pumpkin,” he murmured to her. “I saw you do that thing with your feet.”

“It’s first puh-sition, daddy,” Ava corrected him. “And there’s other ‘sitions, too. All the way up to five, like me!”

“Wow,” Clint beamed. It occurred to him that he knew nothing about ballet or any of the moves, and mentally added it to his list of things to search on YouTube when Ava was in bed. “That’s so many.”

“Can we go?” Ava whined, scrubbing at her eyes.

“I just wanna see Miss Natalia,” Clint told her, and set her back on the ground. When he looked up the woman in question was standing right in front of him, and he only barely managed to stop himself from jumping at their proximity. How had he not noticed her there?

“It’s just Natalia,” she said drily, all traces of sweet ballet teacher wiped clean from her face. “Unless, of course, you would like to use the term ‘Miss’ in the same derogatory way that the other parents do.”

Clint blinked. “Um. I’m Ava’s dad.”

“Okay,” Natalia said. Clint expected her to ask about Laura, thought that she would surely have met her during Ava’s previous year of dance, but if she was curious about why Clint was there now instead she didn’t let on. “Was there something you needed?”

Ava left his side and moved across the room to sit in front of the mirror with Morgan. The other girl had a colouring book and an assortment of gel pens, and he watched as she offered the opposite page for Ava to colour in. Clint didn’t know Morgan’s parents, but she seemed like a sweet girl.

“I wanted to apologise, actually, for Ava being late on Tuesday,” he said. “I completely forgot.”

Natalia’s forehead crinkled in confusion. “Children are late all the time.”

“Must be annoying though,” Clint chuckled. “I wouldn’t like to stop a class because some dad was too busy fixing his sink or somethin’.”

Another odd expression passed over Natalia’s face and then disappeared before Clint could try and read it. She shrugged and turned away from him, crossing over to the corner of the room to hoist a large duffel bag onto her shoulder. He stood scratching his head awkwardly, unsure if this was her way of signalling the end of the conversation.

He could maybe see how the other women thought she was stuck up, but he didn’t think she actually meant it. There was an awkwardness to her too, or perhaps it was her way of protecting herself from the nasty things that were said about her, both to her face and behind her back.

Eventually she turned around, pulling her hair free of its bun and letting it fall in thick waves past her shoulders. “If you buy a hair donut, it will make doing the bun much easier.”

“A what now?” Clint asked. He thought about pulling his phone out to take notes but didn’t want to look like any more of an idiot.

“Here,” Natalia said, rummaging in her bag until she found what she was looking for. She tossed it at Clint without warning, and he quickly snatched the soft donut-shaped object out of the air. “Put her hair in a ponytail, then through the donut, and you should be able to just tie it off with an elastic.”

“Thanks,” Clint said genuinely. “I don’t… I think Laura had some of these, but…”

“We like neat hair for ballet,” Natalia said, subtly skipping over the whole accidental Laura name drop. “Neat hair and punctuality.”

“Roger,” Clint grinned. “No, really though. Thanks a lot for this.”

Natalia nodded once, sharply, not meeting his gaze. “Morgan, you need to come sit with Wanda until your mum comes, okay?”

“Okay,” Morgan called. She packed up her colouring and the two girls bounded over, looking just about as tired as Clint felt. It had been a long afternoon, and he knew it would be an early night for Ava.

“This is my daddy,” Ava said proudly, swinging on his hand.

“No way!” Natalia said, bending down so she was eye-level with Ava. “He seems pretty cool!”

“The bestest daddy ever,” Ava confirmed solemnly.

“He’s very lucky to have you,” Natalia said, and Clint didn’t think anyone had ever said anything truer. “Now, Ava and Ava’s dad, it’s time to go so I can close the studio.”

“Clint,” he said. “I’m Clint, actually.”

Natalia met his gaze again, and for some reason he couldn’t look away, couldn’t stop staring into her eyes, which were endless and bright. It felt like a lifetime passed in the cheesiest way possible, and he thought he might actually do it; just ask her out and see what happened, even though he didn’t know her at all, that he only really liked the way she spoke to his kid and the sharpness that no one else seemed to see.

Then she turned away, and Clint remembered Ava and the divorce papers he had only just signed. It was too soon, even if Laura already had a new boyfriend. She didn’t have to worry about Ava anymore, and he would be damned if he let the almost-right routine they had settled into be ruined because he had developed an almost-crush on the dance teacher.

Ava came first. It was just the way things were.


	3. fractured moonlight on the sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> new chapter!! laura sucks!! ava is still cute and clint cares a Lot!! ♥w♥
> 
> hope you enjoy (remember when i said this was gonna be slow burn?? i really meant the slow burn part lmao buckle up)

> "though the pressure's hard to take,  
> it's the only way I can escape.  
> it seems a heavy choice to make,  
> but now I am under, oh"
> 
> \- Florence and the Machine, “Never Let Me Go”

Clint spent the weekend eating ice cream with Ava and helping her touch her toes and learning exactly what the fuck a relevé was, so by the time Tuesday came around he felt less like an imposter and more like a dad who was just trying his best to make his daughter happy. He even brought her a new dance bag, had her name embroidered on the side in pretty pink lettering so she felt a little special, more so because her first day back at kindergarten was next week and he wanted things to be as normal as possible.

Ava hadn’t been to kindergarten for the whole three months that Laura had taken her to Oklahoma, and then it had been Christmas and then Clint had just been trying to get her settled before he even thought about sending her back. Realistically he knew he was more nervous than she was, because soon kindergarten would be over and then it would be school, _real-life_ school that she would be at every day, and he didn’t want to think about it or he might cry.

Laura would be coming for the first day back at kindergarten, though Clint didn’t really know why she would bother. He had already had too many heated phone calls with her to argue anymore about it, and Ava _was_ excited to see her mum. He didn’t know if the new boyfriend was coming too, not that it mattered.

Except, that it kind of did.

“Daddy, how far away is the sun?” Ava asked, swinging his hand between their bodies as they walked from the car to the studio.

“I dunno,” Clint replied, squinting at the sky. “Pretty far, I guess.”

Ava scrunched her nose. “It’s gotta be far, _far_ away.”

“Well, you need a spaceship to get up there,” Clint told her. “I guess that is far, far away.”

“If you go near the sun you’ll s’plode!” Ava cried. She jumped up onto the sidewalk, then yanked on the door with all of her might, trying to open it. “Like Ic… Icawus.”

“Icarus didn’t explode, his wings melted,” Clint said absently, then frowned. He pulled open the door and let Ava in first, watching her bunny hop right up to reception. “How do you know who Icarus is?”

“You told me in a book,” Ava said, with an eye roll to match her tone. “He goes higher and higher and higher and –“

“Icarus was a dummy,” Wanda said, peering down at Ava from behind her desk. “If you wanna fly anywhere, you fly to the moon.”

Clint couldn’t quite believe that Ava could remember so many details about a random God, but the Greek myths had been her favourite book when she was four and Clint just couldn’t say no to her face when she had begged him to read it every night. His kid was smart, and his chest burned with the kind of pride that would nestle in his soul forever.

“I fly to mummy’s house but it’s only in a plane,” Ava said, looking crestfallen. “I don’t have any wings.”

Wanda shot Clint the kind of panicked look that reminded him not everyone knew how to deal with divorce. Clint himself didn’t even know how to deal with divorce, and he was almost six months deep in it. He rescued her by holding out Ava’s bag, flashing the embroidered name and giving her an easy out.

“No way Ava! Is that a brand new dance bag?”

Clint was distracted from Ava’s reply as Natalia walked out of the back room, pausing behind Wanda’s chair so she too could listen to Ava’s excited chatter. He thought he was pretty good at reading body language, even though he hadn’t read once that Laura was having an affair, but he didn’t let his mind go there as he noticed the tension Natalia held in her shoulders, a tension that hadn’t been there last week.

He wanted to ask her why, and then he felt a bit stupid for thinking that he had a right to ask, and then she met his gaze with those green eyes and for a split second all rational thought left his brain. She was beautiful, only an idiot wouldn’t agree, but he was ignoring that for now. Or at least, trying to ignore it.

She glanced at her watch, and then tilted her head down the hall. Clint knew that they were early this week, but he didn’t think there would be anything wrong with it. If anything, being early was better than being late, but he couldn’t think of one other thing she would want to talk to him about as he followed her away from Ava and Wanda.

They stood about as far apart as they could in the hallway, which Clint would have found weird if Natalia didn’t already look incredibly uncomfortable. The next thought that flashed through his mind was that she had caught him staring and somehow knew that he thought she was pretty, and he _really_ didn’t want to have that kind of conversation with her.

“I received a phone call from Laura last week,” Natalia started, and all Clint could think was, _thank God_.

But then –

“Wait, what?”

Natalia nodded once, glancing at Ava. “She wanted to cancel Ava’s lessons. I was… unaware, that she had moved.”

“She wanted to what?” Clint asked incredulously. “Wait. Did she say why?”

“We tried to bill the account on file,” Natalia explained carefully. “It declined.”

“Because the account was supposed to be cancelled,” Clint said. He took a deep breath. “Let me guess. Laura kept it open.”

Their joint account had been emptied after the divorce, and he had left it to her to deal with so he could focus on their initial custody arrangement. But then Laura had given up on that too, and Clint had forgotten about everything except his baby girl. It had been months, though. It made no sense.

“I'm not becoming involved in this,” Natalia said sternly. “I’m just here to ask that you reconsider cancelling Ava’s lessons. She has a real talent and I would love to see her succeed.”

Clint chuckled, running his hand through his hair. “I’m not… I'm not gonna cancel anything. She loves it. It’s normal. I’ll go see Wanda and get it all sorted.”

Natalia’s eyes flicked over his face, as though she were looking for something on his features. He smiled a little in case there was something else there, some kind of hurt that he hadn’t quite learnt to cover yet. He was good at it with Ava, because she was five and didn’t fully grasp the concept of other things being painful besides skinned knees, and it had been a while since he’d had to practise with another adult.

“Good,” Natalia said softly, eventually. “I have a class to teach.”

“Right,” Clint said. “Um, Ava…”

“I’m here, daddy,” Ava chirped as she skipped over to them. “What is you talking bout?”

“Grown up stuff,” Clint teased. Her hair was cute today, pulled through the hair donut with a precision he hadn’t known he had. Wispy baby hairs still curled around her temples, refusing to be tamed.

“Like smelly socks?” Ava gasped.

“Even worse,” Natalia spoke, beating Clint to it. “Brussel sprouts.”

“Ew!” Ava groaned, pulling a face. “That’s ba-sgusting!”

“ _Dis_ gusting,” Clint corrected her. “Have fun, pumpkin.”

Ava held Natalia’s hand and pulled her away, into the studio. There was still a couple of minutes before class officially started, and so far none of the other mums had arrived, so Clint made his way back to Wanda to sort out whatever trouble Laura had got him in now.

It was annoying, having to deal with shit that should have been dealt with long ago, and the fact that Laura had just decided to cancel the classes without consulting him only made him angrier. He tried to calm down, tried to take a deep breath and remember it wasn’t the end of the world. He sent her a text, not quite ready to hear her voice yet.

_you were supposed to cancel the account last year. Ava is still dancing. I’ll deal with it later._

Wanda had the phone nestled between her shoulder and ear, baby Rose squirming on her lap. Clint waited at the desk, pulling faces to try and distract Rose, but the baby was clearly distressed about something and nothing he did would help. Wanda look flustered, trying to soothe Rose and also talk to whoever was on the other end of the line.

“We do offer payment plans, and it’s very easy... please stop, Rose… no, no, not you, it’s just –”

Clint pocketed his phone and held his arms out, giving Wanda the kind of look that told her handing the baby over would be her best option. She considered him for a moment, bouncing Rose absentmindedly, and then whoever was on the phone said something that made her eyes widen and she was all but throwing the baby over the desk at him.

He took Rose from her carefully, aware that the baby already wasn’t happy about something. If her rosy cheeks and drool-covered chin were anything to go by, Clint could guess that she might be cutting a tooth. If he had clean hands he would have offered her his finger to chew, but instead he found a discarded rattle on the desk and gave that to her instead.

Rose was probably one of the cutest babies Clint had ever seen. Her eyes were alert and curious, her skin soft in the way that only baby skin was; Clint had spent hours just watching Ava as an infant, taking in all of those things that faded over time until they were locked away securely in his brain.

Wanda seemed much more at ease now, talking slowly and laughing when she needed to. Clint walked with Rose down the hall, past different doors leading to different studios, not wanting to be seen when the other mums came in. He could hear them already, an excited gaggle of girls bursting through the front door with their bossy mothers in tow.

“They’re a funny bunch, aren’t they Rose?” Clint said to the baby. He rubbed his hand in circles on her back, trying to stop the tears before they started. “Just some silly ladies who like to complain.”

Rose bashed her rattle against the side of his face and squealed. Clint winced and shifted her to his other side so he could rub his sore cheek. The baby had strength, he had to give her that.

“Okay, we won’t gossip then.” He racked his brain for something else to say, even though he knew logically that Rose wouldn’t understand him. “Do you know the story of Icarus?”

“I don’t think she knows anything other than pooping and crying,” Wanda said from behind him. “You’re pretty good, ya know?”

Clint shrugged. “It’s just experience, I guess.”

“Right,” Wanda sighed. She took Rose back and held her against her chest, smoothing her fingers over the baby’s hair. “I don’t have much experience with kids.”

“Everyone says the first is the hardest, for obvious reasons,” Clint assured her, but was surprised when a burst of laughter erupted from her chest.

“Ava’s dad, oh my god. Rose isn’t _my_ baby.”

Clint frowned, confused. He had been pretty sure that Rose belonged to Wanda, even if the exact shade of strawberry blonde hair didn’t quite match between the two of them. It made no sense, because even though the dance mums upstairs could possibly be her mother too, he didn’t think even _they_ would leave their child with the receptionist.

“Oh,” he said. “Sorry.”

“It’s no biggie,” Wanda said, still laughing softly to herself. “Honestly, I'm flattered that you think I have my life together enough to have a kid.”

Clint didn’t mention that he hadn’t had his life together at all when Ava was born. It didn’t matter to someone he had just met; it barely mattered to the people he had known his whole life. Barney had visited Ava twice since her birth, and both of those times were when she was a newborn in the hospital.

“I’m gonna miss Ava again,” he said lamely, glancing at the clock on the wall.

“You’ve still got time,” Wanda said gently. “Go enjoy it.”

Clint left them, heading for the staircase and trying to ignore the strange feeling he had about the baby that apparently belonged to no one. None of it made sense and he desperately wanted it to make sense, wanted to be able to sit back knowing that Rose had someone who cared for her and loved her and didn’t just dump her at a dance studio when it suited them.

His pocket vibrated and he remembered what he was supposed to have done with Wanda. They would have to hang around after class again, except at least this time there wouldn’t be anyone else wanting to stick back. Clint glanced up the staircase, wanting more than anything to see if Ava could still plié without falling over, but the weight of Laura’s reply was heavy in his pocket and he just wanted to be done with it all, just wanted to enjoy the time he had with his daughter without anyone else ruining it.

_I'm not paying for it._

_And you were supposed to close the account dumbass._

Clint stared at the screen for a long time. By the time he had thought of something civil to say, Ava’s class was over.


	4. a clean slate with your own face on

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is late i'm sorry!! but i hope you enjoy it and pleathe let me know if you do like it!! i love ya'll as much as i love ava elizabeth barton and that's a Lot!! 
> 
> this chapter features many emotions so. fun times i guess??

> "clown-like, happiest on your hands,  
> feet to the stars and moon-skulled/  
> wrapped up in yourself like a spool,  
> trawling as dark owls do."
> 
> \- Slyvia Plath, "You're"

Ava grinned brightly, hands on her hips and head tilted to the side, picture-perfect in her new coat and matching boots. Clint felt his heart backflip and hovered his finger over the camera button, trying to commit the moment to memory before he took the photo and it just became another picture he would look back on in ten years when Ava was too cool to pose for back to school photos.

“Excited?” Clint asked as he finally snapped the picture. He didn’t want to think about Ava in ten years, didn’t even want to think about the Ava of now, who was about to go back to kindergarten and was acting like she had never left. She was a kid, and he knew she was resilient, but it had been three months and things were different.

“Yup,” Ava beamed. “I’m gonna see Victoria again!”

“That’ll be good,” Clint said. He picked up her bag, unzipping the front pocket to check she had everything for the billionth time. “You know where your snack is?”

“In the lunch box,” Ava told him. “Daddy, I checked so much.”

“What’s this?” Clint asked, fishing out the toy Nerf gun she had seemingly stuffed underneath her spare pair of socks and gloves. “Ava, you can't take a gun to school.”

“Issa _pretend_ one,” Ava argued. “Only because my bow wouldn’t fit in there. _Please_ daddy?”

She turned her eyes on him, big and blue and bright, the eyes he couldn’t say no to without it causing him actual, _physical_ pain. But he also couldn’t have his kid whipping a plastic gun out on the playground on her first day back. He could just imagine the look on Wendy or Sarah’s faces if they were here, but then immediately shook the thought from his head because Ava was really none of their business and it was stupid to think about, anyway.

“You’re not taking it,” Clint said firmly. “We’ll both get in trouble, okay?”

He expected Ava to huff and stamp her foot and make some kind of scene like she usually did when she was told no, but she was too focused on balancing on the edge of the sidewalk to really be listening. Clint sighed and tucked the Nerf gun into his pocket, then finished checking the other pocket of her backpack. Should he have packed another pair of shoes too?

“Hey, baby!”

Clint lurched forward and caught Ava by the arm, hauling her into the air before she fully lost her balance and fell onto the road. He had barely set her down before she was racing along the sidewalk and into Laura’s arms, her squeal of laughter briefly slowing Clint’s hammering heart. He took a breath, loosened his death-grip on the backpack.

“You scared us,” he said when Laura was close enough to hear him. He told himself it sounded less accusatory than it did.

“Surprise!” Laura chirped. “Thought it would be easier to meet you here. Plus it saves the trip out to the farm.”

Laura had lived in the house with him for five years and it was always “the farm” to her, never her home or even her daughter’s home, just a place that she lived that needed everything fixed. And it was impossible to fix, Clint had tried, and he still tried even though it didn’t mean the same thing anymore. Maybe it would mean something to Ava, one day.

“How are you?” Clint asked, and meant it. He could be angry about things in his own time.

“I’m doing good,” Laura said. She gave him a once over, the kind that made him self-conscious even now. “How about you?”

This was the kind of awkward small talk that Clint desperately tried to avoid. “I’m fine.”

“Iowa’s Iowa, right?” Laura said. “Wouldn’t expect anything exciting to happen.”

“We’re adjusting,” Clint snapped, just for the sake of it. “You didn’t have to come.”

Laura looked more amused than anything. She tousled Ava’s perfect pigtails until the baby hairs Clint had managed to smooth down were sticking up haphazardly around her temples. It didn’t matter, he knew that logically, but it irked him because he had woken up early to make sure her hair was just right for her first day, and now –

“ _Mum_ ,” Ava groaned, turning her big eyes up to Clint. “Daddy, it’s ruined!”

“It looks fine, baby,” Laura assured her. “C’mon, you know it’s gonna get messy anyway.”

Clint could feel the impending tears as though they were pricking behind his eyes and not Ava’s. Laura wasn’t wrong in saying that it would get messy, because Ava Barton had a knack for getting muddy and she _was_ Clint's kid, after all, but she had specifically asked for pretty hair and Laura would’ve known that if she hadn’t left in the first place.

“Here, pumpkin,” Clint said. Damage control with Ava was fast becoming his specialty. He pulled a headband from her backpack and pushed it over the loose hair so it was all pressed down again. “Good as new.”

“Look at you,” Laura said.

Clint rolled his eyes. “Apparently leaving the house without a backup headband is a cardinal sin.”

Laura raised her eyebrow but Clint didn’t want to elaborate. He had learnt it from Genevieve at dance and so far, she hadn’t been wrong. He could already list at least six times since then that having a headband had saved his life.

“Can I go now?” Ava whined. “I wanna see my friends.”

“Course you can,” Clint said. He swallowed the lump in his throat and knelt down to her level so he could squish her against his chest. “You want us to walk you in?”

“Nope,” Ava giggled. “I’m big, daddy.”

“The biggest,” Clint agreed. It wasn’t even like it was her first real day at kindergarten, because that had been last year before everything went to shit. But it felt a little like that time again, and he figured it would for the rest of his life.

“Have a good day baby,” Laura said, peppering kisses all over Ava’s face until she was squirming. “I love you. I’ll see you tonight, okay?”

“Okay,” Ava said brightly. She accepted her backpack and stood grinning at them for a moment, the excitement on her face palpable. “Oh daddy, did you sign me in?”

“I did when we got here,” he told her. “Remember? We came out to wait for mummy.”

“Okay,” Ava repeated. The smile disappeared and she gripped onto Clint’s sleeve, not letting him leave. “Maybe I’m bigger to go by myself, but maybe you gotta watch me too.”

“I’ll stand right here,” he assured her, feeling love and pride and a little sadness swell in his chest. He stood by the gate and didn’t look away until she was safely inside the building, and then he turned and found Laura leaning against his truck waiting for him.

“You wanna get breakfast?” she asked.

Clint shrugged. “Sure. We got time to kill, anyway.”

* * *

There was no denying that breakfast was awkward, but Clint still ate his bacon and eggs with vigour and stabbed at Laura’s pancakes when she pushed them towards him. He had a lot of stuff to do at home, like washing Ava’s ballet tights and picking up her toys and fixing the fence so he might be able to get her that pony she so desperately wanted, but it was also nice to sit and have a minute to himself.

Even if he had to share that minute with Laura.

“Remember we said that we would go out after all of Ava’s milestones?” Laura said.

“We said we’d do a lot of things,” Clint said around his mouthful. He took a swig of coffee, staring out through the diner window. Would Ava remember to take her coat off if she got too hot?

“Yea, I guess we did.”

Laura hadn’t changed much, not that Clint had really expected her to. She was still the same girl he had met in high school, the same girl he had married and had a baby with and divorced, but maybe she was happier now. He would never understand it, not when Ava was right there; not when Laura hadn’t had to do anything except love them, and she couldn’t even do that.

“Look, Laura,” he began, and scrubbed a hand over his face. He didn’t want to have any kind of serious conversation, but he figured they just needed to get it over with. “I’m trying my best to be civil for Ava’s sake. You can't just go cancelling ballet lessons though. If something like that happens again, you have to call me. It’s my job to deal with it.”

“It’s my job too,” Laura protested.

“You gave me custody, Laura,” Clint snapped. “It’s my job and my decision to make. I don’t fucking care who was supposed to close the account because it doesn’t even matter. What matters is that you thought you could stop Ava from doing something without thinking to ask if that was what she wanted.”

“Did you close the account then?” Laura sniffed. She stirred her coffee, clanging the spoon against the side of the cup. She knew he hated it.

“I just said the account doesn’t matter,” Clint hissed. “But yes, of course I closed it. Should’ve been done last year.”

He could tell that they were seconds away from exploding; Laura’s face was pinched in anger and he could feel his own frustration rippling under his skin. She hadn’t had to come all the way to Iowa just to see Ava for five minutes before kindergarten, and a part of him couldn’t help but think she was only doing it to cause a scene. Surely they would be past the pettiness by now.

“I thought you wouldn’t want to take her ballet,” Laura said eventually. “It’s not something dads usually do.”

“She’s my daughter. Of course I want to take her to ballet.”

Clint shovelled another forkful of eggs into his mouth and chewed angrily, then felt a little ridiculous for acting that way. He couldn’t believe how quickly their relationship had fallen apart. They could barely speak to each other now, but there had been a time, once, when Clint had basically worshipped the ground that Laura walked on.

“I wanted it so bad,” Laura said. “I wanted the kid and the husband so bad that I didn’t stop to think, and then you were the first person there. And it just happened, but it wasn’t… It wasn’t the dream I had imagined.”

Clint already knew how Laura felt, had had it screamed at him enough over the last year that none of it was shocking anymore. It hurt, though, just as strongly as it had the first time she admitted she had never really loved him the way she was supposed to. Him and Ava hadn’t fit into her moulds, and now she was making new ones in Oklahoma with a guy named Drew and it _hurt_.

He didn’t want to talk to her anymore, already feeling a headache behind his eyes. He stood without saying anything else, out of words and patience, and made his way to the counter so he could pay and haul ass while he still had a couple of kid-free hours. Maybe fixing the fence would help calm him down.

Clint faltered and didn’t have time to hide the shock on his face before Natalia turned around, almost bumping into him with her tray of coffees. He didn’t know how he hadn’t noticed her enter, couldn’t remember even seeing the door open once since they had been there. He wished Laura wasn’t right behind him. It felt _weird_.

“Ava’s dad,” Natalia said, recovering before he could.

The sound of her voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “It’s Clint, actually. Just… Clint.”

“I know,” Natalia said softly. Her lips quirked slightly, eyes lit with something that looked a lot like amusement. “You’re child-less.”

“Wild, huh?” he chuckled, then self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck. “Ava’s back at kinder, actually.”

“How did she go?” Natalia asked genuinely.

“Um, good I guess?” Clint replied. He hastily passed some notes over to the cashier so they could let the next person through, then somehow found himself following Natalia out of the diner. He didn’t look back at Laura, sure he could feel her glare on his back already. “She did try to smuggle a Nerf gun in her bag though.”

Natalia raised an eyebrow. “A woman should never leave the house without one.”

Clint laughed, though he was still a little unsure how to react around her. He was trying to ignore all of the other women’s opinions about her in favour of making his own, but he also didn’t want to just be attracted to her. He kind of wanted to get to know her, in a completely professional, you’re-my-daughter’s-dance-teacher-and-I’m-recently-divorced kind of way.

“So that’s why Ava likes you so much,” he joked.

“That, and I always have a butterfly sticker for her,” Natalia said. “I’ve never seen anyone throw a tantrum quite like Ava did the day I ran out.”

Clint winced, even though he had no idea what incident she was talking about. “Sorry bout that.”

Natalia shrugged, the almost-smile he was becoming accustomed to gracing her features briefly. “Children are children, Clint. It can be very hard for them to find the words to express their feelings sometimes.”

“I can relate to that,” Clint muttered without thinking. He groaned, tilting his head back to the sky. “Okay. Pretend I didn’t say that.”

“Consider it forgotten,” Natalia assured him. She swapped her tray over to her right hand and fished her keys out of her jacket pocket with her left. “I should go before these cool, or Wanda will have my head.”

Clint didn’t want her to leave, but he did want to get away from Laura’s prying eyes. He was glad Natalia hadn’t brought her up, because he knew for a fact that any of the other dance mums would have. He assumed she was as curious about his personal life as he kind of was about hers, but it was nice to not have to explain anything just yet.

“Yea, it was nice to see you, Natalia.”

At the sound of her name, something cold flashed across her face. He thought she might say something, her eyes telling him that she wanted to, but then she turned with a little wave and crossed the parking lot to her car. Clint stared after her for a moment, confused and already missing the sound of her accented voice, his head a mess of thoughts he could barely understand.

One thing was clear, though, and that was that the crush he was ignoring was steadfastly growing, and he didn’t even know her but he really, really wanted to. He just needed to talk to her some more, get to know her a little. How hard could it be when he already saw her twice a week?

* * *

That night, Clint let Ava curl up against his side after the third time she left her bed. Something had been a little off with her ever since he had picked her up and Laura had said goodbye, and he had tried to stick to their regular schedule in hopes it would help settle her, but she was quiet and cuddly and maybe even a little sad, which automatically had Clint’s nerves shot.

“You wanna sleep in here pumpkin?” he asked her softly, rubbing his hand along her back. It was late, and she was the kind of tired that made her body flop heavily on top of him.

“Yea,” she murmured. “I had a bad day, daddy.”

“You wanna talk about it?” Clint said. He was glad that they had the kind of relationship where she felt comfortable to talk to him, though he didn’t really like that she had to have bad feelings to begin with.

Ava sniffled, and Clint realised she was crying. He remembered what Natalia had said about children not having the right words and scooped her into his arms, letting her wipe her nose on his shirt as she curled her tiny fists around the fabric.

“It’s okay, honey,” he assured her. “You don’t have to say anything.”

It made his heart ache to think that Laura leaving could be the reason she was so sad, and he just wanted to go back to how it all was before, when she had a mum and dad who lived together just so it felt normal. He was trying his best but he knew it wasn’t the same.

“Victoria doesn’t wanna be my friend anymore,” Ava said eventually, pushing her hair away from where it had fallen in her eyes. “She has new friends cause mummy had to take me away and now they don’t wanna play with me.”

Clint felt his whole being split in two at her words. Ava was the best kid in the world, he couldn’t even fathom how no one would want to be play with her.

“Oh honey,” he said, momentarily at a loss for words. “Sometimes… sometimes people don’t understand what’s going on in other people’s lives. Sometimes they can just be a little bit nasty.”

“Morgan shared her crayons,” Ava whispered. “I like to colour.”

“Maybe you can be best friends with Morgan now,” Clint suggested. “She sounds like a nice person.”

“Hmm,” Ava hummed, and Clint could tell she was close to falling asleep now that she was calmer. “Okay, daddy.”

“You know mummy and daddy love you very much,” Clint told her, even though he had told her a thousand times already. “And you’re gonna stay right here now, okay, with me. You don’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want to.”

Clint didn’t really know how much Ava understood about what he was saying, but he liked to be honest with her, not just treat her like a silly kid when it came to her feelings. It was new and confusing and she deserved to know what was happening, and if telling her she had choices helped her cope then he would give her all the choices in the world.

“I love you, Ava Elizabeth,” he whispered in her ear. Her head pushed onto his chest, her hands going slack as her eyes finally closed, and he let himself breathe.

Clint couldn’t bear to move her onto the other side of his bed just yet, so held her close for a little longer while he still could. He would have to talk to Laura, if only to let her know that Ava might be struggling a little bit, but none of it really mattered at the moment. He just wanted his baby to be happy.


	5. and we knew what it meant to be loved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i actually updated this fic... it's a miracle honestly but all thanks to my gal Cheree, who reminded me how much i absolutely adore this story!! so everyone say thank you Cheree 🥰
> 
> i'm so excited to get back into this story! we have rude dance mums and clint just being the Best so pls enjoy!! let me know what you think!! x

> and ever since I left my mother,  
> it's much harder to know.  
> how to make my own life here,  
> how to make my own home

> \- Broods, “Mother and Father”

It didn’t take long for Clint to appreciate ballet and the hour it allowed him on a Thursday to actually get shit done. He didn’t care about sitting with the other women and gossiping about the children and whatever scandalous thing Natalia had done in the past, so he started booking appointments for that time just to have an excuse to leave.

He missed Ava dancing but it wasn’t _every_ week anyway, and there really was only so much of Wendy’s whining that he could take before he felt like ripping his hair out. Plus it gave him a chance to sort out the last of his paperwork with Laura and he always made it back in time for the end of week catch-up, and for the most part his plan worked well.

Until –

“I’m sorry, I forgot!” Clint cried as he burst through the front door.

Wanda glanced up from where she was helping Ava shrug into her coat. “You forgot your kid.”

“Daddy!” Ava cheered, twisting out of Wanda’s grip to throw her arms around Clint’s legs. “Miss Tasha gave me a pink butterfly!”

“Wow,” Clint said absently. He accepted Ava’s coat from Wanda and grimaced. “I know it looks bad –“

“It’s fine, Ava’s dad,” Wanda said, rolling her eyes. She pointed at Morgan, who was sat by the receptionists desk with baby Rose between her legs. “We always stay open later for Morgan.”

Clint still felt bad, because he really hadn’t meant to fall asleep on the couch. He had been halfway through reading the terms that his lawyer was going to send to Laura and then he had opened his eyes and there hadn’t been a child waiting for him to cook dinner. The panic had barely subsided as he sped towards town, and now he just felt guilt.

He also felt like the worst parent in the world, but he wasn’t about to share that with Wanda.

“I think I’ll be able to stay from now on anyway,” Clint said, even if it wasn’t necessarily true. He still had shit to do, but he could probably squeeze it in on the weekends. “I promise it won't happen again.”

“It probably will,” Wanda shrugged. “I don’t really care, so long as you actually come back eventually.”

“Daddy I’m _starving_ ,” Ava whined. “Can we have cake for dinner again?”

Clint winced. “That was a special occasion. We need to have some vegetables tonight.”

“Ba-sgusting,” Ava muttered. “I don’t need begtables, I’m already bigger.”

Clint was saved from arguing with her when the door swung open and a woman he had never seen before entered. She was dressed in a pantsuit and Clint realised that she was _rich_ rich when he caught sight of the watch that sparkled on her wrist. People in this part of Iowa didn’t own actual diamonds.

“Hey, Wanda,” she said cheerfully. “Sorry I’m later tonight.”

“No probs,” Wanda said. “Ava’s dad forgot her and Morgan is enjoying baby cuddles, so.”

Clint felt his cheeks burn and wished that the Earth would swallow him whole. “I didn’t _forget_ her, I just… forgot the time.”

“You must be Clint,” the woman said, extending a hand that had even more diamonds attached to it. “I’m Pepper, Morgan’s mum.”

“Oh,” Clint said, as if that was supposed to mean anything. “I think Ava and Morgan are friends now.”

“Morgan doesn’t shut up about her,” Pepper grinned. “We’ll have to organise a playdate for the weekend. Hopefully you can convince my husband that he won't be any less of a man for supporting his daughter.”

“Oh,” Clint said again. He blinked and tried to get his thoughts in order, not convinced that he hadn’t left his brain somewhere back on the couch at the farm. “I think Ava would like that. She had a little… issue, at kinder last month.”

He didn’t want to talk about it too much in front of Ava, because she already seemed to have gotten over all of her friends ditching her in the time that she had been gone and he didn’t want to keep her thinking about it. He still needed to call Laura though. They hadn’t spoken since she had left.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Pepper said sincerely. “Some children can be rather mean.”

Clint agreed, though he would have used a much different term. “Yea. She’s doing okay though.”

Pepper rummaged through her bag and Clint tried to check that Ava had everything he had dropped her off with. He caught a glance of Morgan with Rose and it all finally clicked into place. She had to be Morgan’s sister. It didn’t make him feel so bad to know that Pepper was just a hard-working mum.

A hard-working _CEO_ he realised a second later, when she pressed her business card into his hand. “Text me. We can do something after kinder one day.”

“Thanks,” Clint breathed. He pried Ava’s hand off his pants and held it in his own, finally feeling like he would actually be okay to drive them home without screaming. His fear still thrummed in his veins, making his heart hurt. He had _forgotten_ his kid.

“Now give me that baby,” Pepper said, setting her bag down on the desk. “It’s been so long since I’ve had cuddles.”

“See you next week, Ava!” Wanda called enthusiastically as they left the building. Clint waved, but it felt forced even to him.

“You were late today, daddy,” Ava said sweetly, unintentionally rubbing it in. “I got to play with Morgan for so many extra hours.”

“It was only twenty minutes, hun,” he said quickly. “Fuck. Twenty minutes.”

“That’s a curse!” Ava sing-songed. She clambered into the back of his truck, scrubbing a balled fist over her eyes. “A bad curse. You don’t say bad curses anymore.”

Clint buckled Ava in, then leant forward to rest his forehead against hers. He took a deep breath and inhaled the soft, sweet scent of her strawberry shampoo, feeling her tiny hands scratch at the stubble he needed to shave. She had been fine, he knew that realistically, but _what if_. What if she hadn’t been at dance, what if she had been at kinder and someone else had picked her up and –

“I’m starving, remember?” Ava said, pinching his cheek.

“Right,” Clint laughed and pulled away. “Let’s go home and eat some vegetables.”

“Gross,” Ava moaned.

“I bet Morgan and her sister eat their vegetables,” Clint said. He started the truck and pulled out of the parking lot, double-checking Ava in the rear-view. “Vegetables make you grow up big and strong.”

“Morgan doesn’t have a sister, silly,” Ava said around a yawn. “Can I have nuggets with sauce?”

Clint frowned, thinking back to Rose and Pepper and how obvious it was that they were mother and daughter. Morgan must take after her dad, and Clint had yet to see anyone else who the baby belonged to, and it made sense for Pepper to keep her two kids together. It also made Clint feel a sense of relief he hadn’t expected; relief because Rose _wasn’t_ on her own, she just had a busy family.

“You can have nuggets,” Clint told her. “And three books before bed, how does that sound?”

“Like the best,” Ava said softly. She was fighting sleep, her little body still adjusting to having dance after kinder. “’M not sleepy, daddy.”

“It’s okay, pumpkin,” Clint said. “We still have a little way to go.”

Ava drifted in the back seat, and Clint reminded himself that it was okay, that it _had_ only been twenty minutes and he wasn’t the worst parent in the world for it. Looking after Ava was his favourite thing to do, but it was hard on his own and he still had to adjust himself. It wasn’t as easy for him as it had been for Laura to walk out on them.

He was stuck in the aftermath, but at least he could sleep a little easier at night knowing that Rose had a home.

* * *

The following Thursday found Clint ignoring his paperwork in favour of watching Ava dance, which in turn meant he was forced to sit upstairs with the other mothers. Wanda hadn’t been at reception, and Wendy had spotted him within seconds of them entering the building, and now he was sandwiched between her and Genevieve, desperately trying to not get caught up in their gossip about Natalia. 

“We all know why she’s late,” Sarah said, pointing at Wendy accusatorily. “You said so yourself last week.”

“Oh sugar,” Wendy giggled, pretending to hide her face behind her hand. “Again? For what we pay, I think it’s –”

“What was she doing last week?” Genevieve interrupted. “Ruby was sick, remember?”

“I’m not repeating it!” Sarah said, but a second later she was making a crude gesture with her hand and mouth. “Clint, you’re a man. Would you let her put her mouth on your… well, _you know_. If you were happily married, would you do that?”

Clint gaped at them, actually at a loss for words. He didn’t even understand what they were talking about, didn’t know why they would have thought of something so bizarre and personal. It was really none of their business what Natalia did in her free time, and he felt his cheeks burning with both embarrassment and anger. These women were horrible, and it made him sick to think that Laura had sat there and contributed to their stupid little game.

“She’s a homewrecker, plain and simple,” Wendy said to fill the silence. “It’s a shame she’s so good at what she does. I’d rather not give her business.”

“Then don’t,” Clint muttered, too soft for anyone to actually hear. They were too busy arguing about where else they would send their kids to pay him any attention anyway. He sighed and looked back down through the window, then sat up straighter as the girls finally entered the room.

Natalia had Rose strapped to her chest. For a second he couldn’t do anything but stare, his mind slowly working through all of the possible reasons that she would have Pepper’s baby until it landed on an entirely new scenario: maybe Rose wasn’t Pepper’s second daughter at all. Maybe she was actually _Natalia’s_ baby.

It made sense, and Clint literally couldn’t believe that it had taken him over a month to work it all out. Rose’s hair was lighter than Natalia’s, but it was unmistakably red, and it would explain why the baby was always at the studio rather than in day-care. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to shock some rational thought into his mind, because all he could process was how _beautiful_ Natalia looked with the baby.

“She has a kid?” he heard himself ask, then winced at how blunt it sounded.

Wendy peered over his shoulder, lips pulled back in a sneer. “Yes. She slept around, got herself pregnant and then had the audacity to close for an extra two months. Our girls really suffered.”

“Ruby forgot _everything_ ,” Genevieve said. “And then she waltzes back in with that little _brat_ , and –”

“She can't even control the class,” Sarah sniffed. “Look. How is she supposed to do anything useful with that thing strapped to her?”

Clint noticed that Rose was crying, her cheeks still red and her tiny hands waving in the air. Natalia was trying to soothe her and help Kendra with her arms, and it all looked like the kind of hot mess that Clint had tried to avoid when Ava was a baby. If his kid hadn’t been happy, then they simply hadn’t left the house. Natalia didn’t have that luxury, though; with Wanda away, there was clearly no one who could watch Rose.

He stood without really knowing what he was doing. “I’m gonna go help.”

Wendy gripped his arm. “What’s the point, sugar? She got herself into the mess.”

“She doesn’t really deserve it,” Sarah quipped. “The help, I mean. If she was really out there doing you-know-what with Melissa’s husband…”

“I saw what I saw,” Wendy said. “I don’t like to point fingers, but.”

Clint rolled his eyes and yanked his arm away. “Right. Well I’m still going to help, so…”

He took the stairs down two at a time, feeling the weight of Wendy’s accusations bouncing around in his mind. He wasn’t going to stoop to their level, and he still really liked Natalia in a way that was definitely toeing the line of you’re-my-kids-dance-teacher-and-I’m-recently-divorced, but he pushed it all aside to focus on the fact that she was just a parent trying to do her best, and he could at least relate to that.

“Daddy, you’re not ‘posed to be here!” Ava cried when he finally found their room.

Now that he was in the room, he could hear just how loud Rose actually was. Natalia spun to face him and something passed over her face, a kind of vulnerability that Clint hadn’t expected to see on her features. She had one hand on Rose’s forehead, the other patting her tummy gently.

“I can take her,” Clint said. “I’ll just wait outside.”

“You don’t need to do that,” Natalia said icily. “I don’t expect parents to babysit my child.”

Clint took another step into the room, ignoring the giggles of the girls and the withering glares he could feel coming from the window above him. “Okay, but imagine this. You give me the baby and they won’t have something to complain about later.”

“They always have something to complain about,” Natalia whispered.

“It’s Rose, right?” Clint continued. “I met her with Wanda a few times. Contrary to whatever Laura may have said in the past, I _am_ actually pretty good with babies.”

Natalia hesitated, but after a moment she began to pull Rose out of the carrier, handing her over before unstrapping the material from around her back. He held the little girl carefully, bouncing her in hopes of stopping the tears before they actually left the room, and Natalia gave him a small smile before turning back to her class.

“It’s not so bad, Rose,” he said softly. He walked with her down the hallway, rocking her until she was blinking blearily in his arms, her thumb wedged firmly in her mouth. “Your mum’s doing a good job, huh. People are just mean.”

Laura would have known, and she had never said anything, had never even mentioned that this was the reason Ava had had that extra time off last year. He wondered if she had agreed with Wendy and Sarah, if she had complained and called Natalia names behind her back, assuming the worst without knowing the full story. It frustrated him, and not just because he had a crush on Natalia that was only getting more complicated by the second.

She was still a person, just a young woman who obviously didn’t have much support in her life, and she was turning up and teaching their kids even though they treated her like dirt. He watched Rose sleep and decided it would be the last time he sat upstairs with those mothers. He didn’t want to be a part of their hate club.

* * *

Clint glanced up as Natalia stopped in front of him. “She’s asleep.”

“I can see that.”

Rose didn’t stir as he carefully handed her back to Natalia, still peacefully sucking on the pacifier he had managed to find behind the receptionists desk. He waved Ava over, indicating for her to be quiet as she clambered onto the seat next to him and stuck her foot in his lap. She had a rainbow sticker today, almost as big as her hand.

“Thank you, Clint,” Natalia said eventually. She rocked carefully on the spot, looking much more natural than Clint had ever felt when Ava was that small. “Wanda usually watches her.”

“It’s not a problem,” Clint said, swapping out Ava’s ballet shoes for her sneakers. “I’m not just gonna sit up there and let them…”

He trailed off, unsure if he actually wanted to tell Natalia about what the other mums had been saying. She offered him a tight smile, her eyes tired. “I’ve heard it all before.”

“Miss Natalia, is Rose your little baby?” Ava asked.

“Yes she is,” Natalia answered. “You know that, Ava.”

“Does she have a daddy like mine?”

Clint choked, then tried to get Ava’s jacket on so that they could leave as quickly as possible. He glanced at Natalia to see that she wasn’t upset, but certainly amused, and made a mental note to remind Ava of her manners when they got home.

“No, she doesn’t,” Natalia said softly. “I don’t think anyone has a daddy quite like yours.”

Clint felt his ears burn and coughed, trying to cover up his embarrassment. Natalia’s eyes met his and he realised that there was absolutely no hiding with her; it was like she could see right through him, like she knew exactly what he wanted to say and was almost willing him to just do it.

“I can watch her whenever you need,” he settled on instead. He ignored the others as they left, refusing to answer Genevieve’s goodbye. “I don’t think I fit in upstairs.”

Natalia almost smiled. “Thank you. I should probably get her to bed.”

“All good,” Clint said, and held Ava’s hand as she jumped off the chair. “Ava and I have a date with The Velveteen Rabbit.”

“My favourite,” Natalia said. “I’ll see you next week, Ava.”

“Bye Miss Natalia!” Ava called. She stood by the door, watching Morgan settle on the ground with her colouring. “Bye Morgan!”

“See you, Natalia,” Clint said.

He watched that same expression pass over her face, the one that she hadn’t been able to hide that day at the diner. He frowned, trying to work out what he had done wrong, feeling like no matter what they were talking about they always seemed to stumble into these moments.

And then Natalia shrugged, shifting Rose to rest against her shoulder. “Call me Natasha.”

Clint felt something flutter in his chest. “Okay, Natasha. See you next week.”


	6. something in it moves me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and im back with another chapter! still loving this fic, just currently working on a really long christmas fic that's taking up all of my time 😅 but hey i work well under pressure or something idk - anyway, enjoy!! and thank you for reading!

> talked until you fell asleep,  
>  now I'm driving home on dopamine.  
>  my brain is in the back seat,  
>  and my heart's in drive.
> 
> \- Nightly feat Charli Adams, “The Movies”

Clint stared up at the gates in awe. Beside him, Ava clutched his hand tightly, dressed in her new party dress and sparkly unicorn headband. She had insisted, even though Clint had told her that it wasn’t technically a party and just a playdate, but Ava was stubborn on a good day and he hadn’t been in the mood to argue.

Though now that they were standing in front of Morgan’s house, Clint kind of thought that the party dress was appropriate. The house was huge, set back on the property and surrounded by the kind of tech that made Clint feel uncomfortable, if only because he couldn’t tell if the Starks were collecting all of his digital information from where he was standing. He didn’t _think_ they were those kinds of rich people, but still. It was a lot to take in.

“Holy shit,” Ava said, her voice almost too adorable to even consider scolding.

Clint still glanced down at her in shock. “Ava Elizabeth Barton.”

“Daddy, you say curses all the time,” Ava said sweetly. “Mummy says if you do something again and again and again it makes it okay.”

“It does not make it okay,” Clint said. He bent down to his daughter’s level and looked her in the eye, forcing away his anger at Laura’s misguided advice. “If something is wrong and you keep doing it, it’s still gonna be wrong, okay?”

Ava’s nose scrunched up and Clint felt his heart literally melt at the sight of her. “Okay, daddy.”

“Okay,” Clint repeated. “Daddy is gonna stop saying curses, too. It’s not nice. And you’re not gonna get any ice cream tonight.”

“Aww,” Ava whined, but at the look on Clint’s face she cut off and sulked instead. “Not fair.”

“Sorry, sweetie, but you don’t get a treat for doing a wrong thing,” Clint told her. “If you don’t say any curses tomorrow, we can have ice cream after dinner.”

“Okay, I guess.”

Ava stared down at her feet, and Clint knew that she would be feeling sorry for herself, but swearing wasn’t a trait that he wanted her to inherit from him, especially at the age of five. Laura didn’t help matters, but then Laura _never_ helped matters, and he couldn’t really blame Ava for listening to her mum. How was she supposed to know her advice was terrible at best?

“Guess we just ring the doorbell?” Clint muttered, then pressed the small button that was on the gate. Nothing happened for a moment, and he vaguely wondered if it would just be easier to tell Ava that Morgan wasn’t home and they could tell her to come to their house instead. Then, the gates swung open and a voice with a British accent told them to enter.

“A ghost!” Ava cried, already over her punishment and now happily hopping along beside him. “Daddy, who was that man talking?”

Clint had no idea. He just gripped Ava’s hand a little harder and walked her up the remainder of the driveway until they were close enough to see that the house wasn’t actually that intimidating. It was probably the biggest house Clint had ever seen, but it was cosy and kind of cute, with toys strewn all over the porch and a small tent set up in the yard. Ava made an excited noise as she noticed the dollhouse that was almost a whole foot taller than her. Clint just hoped she wouldn’t be disappointed to come home to her own toys.

They had barely reached the front door when Morgan suddenly flung it open and screamed. She was wearing what looked like a superhero cape and her own party dress, and over the sound of the two kids squealing Clint could hear Pepper shouting _something_ about not opening the door without asking who was there.

“Ava,” Clint said. Ava glanced at him and watched as he pretended to zip his lips, then grinned and did the same. It was his trick to get her to lower her voice, and it had been working ever since she was two. Without Ava’s scream fuelling her own, Morgan stopped too, instead grabbing her friends hand and dragging her inside.

“Ava’s here,” Morgan called as the two raced down the hallway. Clint heard a door slam and forced down his worry at not being able to see Ava. She was having a playdate, her first playdate since the divorce. He didn’t need to supervise every second of her life.

“Clint,” Pepper said, rounding the corner. She looked frazzled, and almost relieved to see him. If Morgan was anything like Ava, then Pepper had probably been counting down the minutes until ten o’clock too.

“Sorry about the screaming,” he said. “Ava usually remembers her inside voice.”

Pepper laughed. “Morgan doesn’t. I’m sure there’ll be a lot more noise as the day progresses. Would you like to come in for a coffee?”

“I’ve just got to pick up my groceries,” Clint said apologetically. “But I’ll gladly take that coffee later?”

“Sounds good,” Pepper said, smiling. “Don’t rush if you have other things that need doing. I feel like these girls will have more than enough to occupy themselves with for the day.”

“Thanks, Pepper,” Clint said. “I’ll just say goodbye to Ava.”

Clint didn’t think that Ava would care about him leaving, but he didn’t want to assume and besides, it _was_ her first playdate and he wasn’t ashamed to admit that he felt a little wary about leaving her. Ava had never been an overly clingy child, though Laura had tried to make her one so that she could be the same as the other mothers and have her child cry for her at the school gates. His kid hadn’t fallen for it though, and he loved her independence even if it also scared him shitless.

Morgan and Ava were both now dressed like doctors and seemed very intent on saving the life of the stuffed bunny that was laid out on the floor. It was soothing, standing in the doorway and listening to their childlike chatter, trying to remember what it felt like to just play without having to worry about bills or groceries or your wife cheating on you. He sighed, tried to push the thoughts of Laura away before she ruined another good day, and cleared his throat.

“No coming into surgery without a note,” Morgan cried, stopping Clint in his tracks.

“Plus no man doctors allowed,” Ava added. “Only girl doctors because we’re better.”

“I’m just saying goodbye,” Clint said, hands held up in defence. “Can a daddy say see ya to his favourite daughter?”

“Need a note!” Morgan persisted, but Ava just shrugged and crossed over the room, letting Clint press a kiss to her temple.

“Be good, pumpkin,” he said to her, then leant in so he could whisper in her ear. “Don’t forget to go the toilet when you need to, okay? You can ask Mrs Stark where it is.”

“Okay, dad,” Ava said, already wriggling out of his arms. “You gotta go now because it’s very important surgery.”

“Open brain surgery,” Morgan said seriously. “If you’re not careful you know the brain can leak out?”

Clint stared at her and vaguely wondered if his daughter was making the right kind of friend. “Okay. I won't be long Ava.”

Neither of them answered him, and Clint let himself out of the house feeling mostly confident that the playdate would run smoothly. Ava and Morgan both had strong wills, but from what he could see they still got on well together and included each other. At the end of the day, all he cared about was Ava being happy. One weird friend was probably good character building, right?

* * *

Clint was starting to feel a bit weird about bumping into Natalia – no, _Natasha_ he reminded himself – everywhere. Granted, he saw her at dance because she owned the studio, and that meant he had only technically bumped into her once at the diner, but still. He didn’t want to come across as creepy. Not when his kid’s dance career and his almost-crush were at stake.

“Clint Barton,” Natasha said when she saw him returning his trolley. “Child-less, again.”

“Playdate with Morgan,” he told her. “You need a hand at all?”

Natasha frowned slightly, brows crumpled in a way that made her look more displeased than angry. He wasn’t sure what he had done wrong; her own trolley was full of groceries, and Rose was once again strapped to her chest in one of those weird harnesses that Clint had never quite gotten the hang of.

“You know, I don’t make a habit of letting parents save the day,” Natasha said drily.

Clint realised what she was implying and felt heat colour his cheeks. “Sorry. It’s not that I don’t think you can get to your car, but I just – ”

“It’s fine,” Natasha said, cutting him off. “I would appreciate it, thank you.”

Clint let out a breath and took her bags from the trolley, trailing a step behind her to her car. He lifted the groceries into the back and shut the door carefully, turning back to watch as she pulled Rose out of the harness and into her arms. The baby waved her arms in excitement and clocked Natasha in the face.

“She’s strong,” Clint said without thinking. “Hit me over the head with a rattle once.”

Natasha snorted. “She gave me a bald patch last week. I think she finds great joy in pulling hair.”

“Nothing better than a fistful of hair,” Clint said, then groaned. “Please, please forget I ever said that.”

Natasha looked like she was fighting hard not to smile. Clint couldn’t believe he had said something embarrassing in front of her _again_ , and kind of wished he could literally zip his lips shut. He really liked Natasha, and so far all he had shown her was how awkward he was and it should have been easier for him, now that Laura was basically out of the picture, but somehow it was much harder.

“Consider it forgotten,” Natasha said after a pause. “Thanks again for your help last Thursday.”

Clint shrugged. “Those women are bitc – I mean, nasty. They’re nasty.”

“Rose has heard far worse, in English and Russian,” Natasha assured him, and he felt a sudden jolt as he finally placed her accent. “Plus, she’s seven months old and won't remember a word of it.”

“Nah, I’m trying to stop cursing around Ava,” Clint mumbled. “It’s not a habit I want her picking up on. Gotta set an example, or whatever.”

“You’re a good dad, Clint,” Natasha said softly, and for a second they stood just staring at each other, a car door and a baby the only thing between them, and Clint couldn’t help but imagine how easy it would be to just lean in and kiss her. Then Natasha shook her head, glancing down at Rose. “I should get her home for lunch.”

“Yea, I gotta go get Ava,” Clint said, rubbing the back of his neck. “It was nice to see you, anyway.”

“Tuesday,” Natasha told him, and it kind of almost sounded like she was trying to check that he would actually be there. Clint couldn’t be sure, but it felt like an offer; he took a deep breath and took his shot, just in case.

“Tuesday. I look forward to it.”

Natasha paused, regarding Clint with an expression that he couldn’t read. It hadn’t been what he had really wanted to say in the end, the words getting caught somewhere inside of him, some part of him that still maybe loved Laura a little. He didn’t want to admit it, had tried repressing it because she didn’t deserve his love, but it had been five years with just the her and him and Ava, and even if he denied it, it had left a mark.

“Me too,” Natasha said eventually. She took one of Rose’s chubby fists and waved it at him, causing the baby to giggle. “Say buh-bye, Clint.”

Rose gurgled and Clint waved back, feeling like maybe it wouldn’t be hard to erase that mark, if he tried hard enough. There was more to gain than there was to lose. He just had to get over it.

* * *

The Stark household was surprisingly quiet when he returned, and Clint soon found out it was because the two girls were watching Frozen and having a picnic. He accepted the cup of coffee from Pepper and sat opposite her at the porch table, taking in the view. Iowa looked different from here, nicer somehow.

“Tony wanted to stay in New York,” Pepper said when she noticed him staring across the paddocks. “The company is there, but raising a child surrounded by concrete… Tony hated it, growing up. I didn’t want Morgan to hate it too.”

“Why Iowa?” Clint asked.

Pepper shrugged. “It’s safe. And it’s a very nice area, though I would be lying if Natasha didn’t have something to do with it.”

Clint frowned and sipped his coffee, then glanced over at the older woman. “Oh? How’s that?”

“She taught Morgan in New York, when she was a toddler,” Pepper sighed. “God, Natasha was only young herself. But then there was an incident and she needed a place to stay. We moved her here with us, got her out of that city before it ate her alive.”

Clint didn’t quite understand everything that Pepper was telling him, though it sounded like he had been right about Natasha not having many people she could rely on. He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of incident would lead to a married couple moving a young woman across the country. Maybe there was more to Natasha than even he had realised.

“Now we have the added bonus of her continuing to teach Morgan,” Pepper said, either not noticing or choosing to ignore his pensiveness. “I can work remotely from home and Tony does whatever Tony wants.”

Clint grinned. “Sounds like you’ve got your hands full.”

“I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Pepper said fiercely. “He was hoping to meet you today, but work always calls at the last minute. I told him you can tie Ava’s hair in a bun.”

“Barely,” Clint laughed. “Natasha had to show me.”

“Well you can show Tony,” Pepper said. “He needs to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around robots and technology.”

“Thank you so much for having Ava over today,” Clint said, changing the subject before he accidentally got caught gossiping about a billionaire. “I’m glad she has a friend like Morgan.”

“I’m glad Morgan has a friend like Ava,” Pepper snorted. “They both peed all over the floor, so Ava is just wearing Morgan’s clothes now.”

Clint felt his stomach plummet to the ground. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I’ll – ”

“Don’t be,” Pepper interrupted, waving her hand. “They’re five, they have accidents. Although I suspect that Morgan thought their urine could disinfect the dying bunny rabbit.”

Clint blinked at her. “The toy?”

“Yes,” Pepper sighed. “The bunny did not survive it’s open brain surgery this morning, I’m afraid.”

He let out his breath and couldn’t help but laugh at the look on Pepper’s face, because she was right; they were just kids, just two little girls with wild imaginations who had probably thought that it was perfectly rational to pee all over the toys. It surprised him a little, that Ava had actually done it, but she didn’t like being left out. He would still talk to her about it, if only to make sure she didn’t do it at home.

“Thanks for the coffee,” Clint said, noticing the position of the sun. It was later than he had thought. “I better get Ava home.”

“Not a problem,” Pepper said. She led the way into the house, calling out to the girls as they entered the kitchen. “Ava is always welcome here.”

“I don’t wanna go daddy!” Ava cried, stamping her way into the room. “Morgan is my bestest friend ever and I want a sleepover.”

“Not today, pumpkin,” Clint said, then prepared himself for the waterworks. “But Morgan can come to our house next time, and maybe on the holidays you can have a sleepover if Morgan’s mummy says yes.”

To his surprise, Ava simply nodded and scrubbed at her eyes, clearly tired. “Okay, daddy.”

Pepper carefully passed him a plastic bag with Ava’s wet clothes bundled in it. “What do you say to Ava, Morgan?”

“Thanks for coming,” Morgan chirped.

“Thanks for having me,” Ava said softly, suddenly a little shy. She gripped Clint’s hand and swung it between them. “I had heaps of fun.”

“Thanks again,” Clint said. He was ready to walk out the door when Ava suddenly let go of his hand, throwing her arms around Morgan instead. The two girls hugged, tiny bodies swaying together, and Clint felt tears prick the back of his eyes at how sweet it was.

“Bye,” Ava said, letting go, and then they began their trek back down the driveway to the car. Clint listened to Ava chirp on about everything they had done together but he found himself unable to focus his full attention, his mind stuck on a loop of Natasha almost smiling, her green eyes asking him to say something more.


	7. dancing with our shoes off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg hi it's been a year but this bad boy has finally been updated bc iT'S BRYCE'S BIRTHDAY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYCE OMG!! (ur real birthday present will be written one day when life isn't so crazy lmao)
> 
> anyway if anyone at all is still interested in this or reading it like. thank you so much wow ❤️❤️ and i hope you like this update!! it was super fun to write so who knows maybe i'll pick it up again 😇
> 
> HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYCE BESTIE ILY ❤️🥰✨

> “a couple rebel top guns pilots  
>  flying with nowhere to be.  
>  don’t know you super well  
>  but i think that you might be the same as me”
> 
> \- Lorde, “Homemade Dynamite”

Another month of dance passed in a whirlwind of leotards and pink ribbon, and by the time the mid-semester break rolled around Clint was well-versed in ignoring the comments of the other mums and had perfected the art of using a hair doughnut to create a bun that not even Natasha could fault. 

It made Ava smile at her reflection in the windows of the studio as they made their way to the last class before break. It wasn’t much, but Clint felt like the best dad in the world.

“Oh hey Ava and Ava’s dad,” Wanda greeted as they walked through the front door. “Looking as cute as ever, I see.”

Clint didn’t know if she was talking about himself or his kid. “Doesn’t take much for Ava to look cute.”

“I just have the sweetest smile,” Ava said, demonstrating for Wanda. “Mummy says I get _whatever_ I want when I smile.”

“Well, not always,” Clint said absently. He noticed that Wanda didn’t have Rose and frowned, looking behind him as though the baby would walk through the door. “Where’s—”

“Rosie isn’t here yet,” Wanda said. She pulled out a bottle of nail polish and idly inspected her nails before giving Clint a pointed look. “Neither is Nat.”

“Obviously,” Clint said. “We’re early.”

“Early bird gets the worm,” Wanda said, and Clint couldn’t ignore her raised eyebrow anymore. He tugged Ava by the hand over to the seats and pulled her cut fruit from the dance bag.

She shook her head. “I want chocolate yoghurt!”

“No,” Clint said. “Fruit before dance, kiddo, you know that. We can have a special dessert tonight because it’s the last lesson before break, okay?”

Instead of agreeing like he expected, if anything Ava’s frown deepened. “I don’t wanna stop dancing.”

“It’s only for two weeks,” Clint assured her. “Miss Natasha needs to have a rest after teaching all you crazy kids.”

“ _Natasha_ ?” Wanda called from behind the desk. “So you’re on _first_ first name basis now, huh?”

Clint ignored her. “Look, honey. We’re gonna do so many fun things on the break. Daddy will be able to take you to see Aunty Kate.”

“Aunty Kate!” Ava cheered, finally accepting the fruit from him. “I haven’t seen Aunty Kate for as long as I’ve been born.”

It hadn’t been that long, but Clint couldn’t exactly remember the last time they _had_ seen Kate. She was busy in college, and he’d been busy being cheated on and then raising a kid on his own, and somewhere in-between they had just lost touch. Kate was important, though, and he wanted her to be a part of Ava’s life. 

“Exciting, right? Now I’m just going to talk to Wanda while you eat your fruit, okay?”

Ava nodded, happily taking a bite out of an apple slice. Clint made his way back to the desk and whatever Wanda was hinting at, leaning against the top and swiping the lid of the nail polish.

“Scarlet Witch?”

“Shut it,” Wanda said, snatching it back. “So. You and Natasha.”

Clint blinked. “My daughter’s dance teacher, yes.”

“You’re not slick, Ava’s dad,” Wanda said. “Natasha’s pretty. Not everyone would watch someone’s kid just because.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Clint asked, shrugging. “She needed the help. Plus, Rose is an easy baby.”

“Sure,” Wanda drawled. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to move on—”

“When did you become my therapist?” Clint teased. “Look, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from this whole thing is that it’s hard to be a single parent. It doesn’t cost to help someone out.”

Wanda grinned, then blew on her freshly painted nails. “You should ask her out.”

Clint was about to answer when he felt the rush of air as the door opened behind him. He turned to see Natasha, cheeks pink from the cold, holding Rose with one hand and a tray of coffees with the other. He stepped forward and took the coffees, passing them off to Wanda so he could help her with her diaper bag.

“Thanks,” she said breathlessly, hoisting Rose up higher against her hip. “I didn’t think we would get here in time.”

“Early, boss,” Wanda called. “Thanks for the coffee!”

Natasha rolled her eyes and then smiled at him softly. “You’re always here to save the day.”

“Uh, not really,” Clint said, feeling heat rise to his cheeks. “All I do is—”

“Look after my daughter,” Natasha finished softly. “I appreciate it.”

Clint stared at her, trying to make it look like he _wasn’t_ staring because he didn’t want to be that guy, but it was hard not to when she was so beautiful. Her eyes were kind, her face soft and open. Rose was just like her; side by side, he kicked himself for not realisingit sooner. 

“It’s okay,” he said. “Do you want me to take her?”

“Thank you,” Natasha said. She pressed a gentle kiss to Rose’s nose and then passed her over to Clint, smoothing out her coat once she was safely in his arms. “She might get too warm, so you can just take this off.” 

“Sure thing,” Clint replied easily. He bounced Rose and then spun with her in a circle, causing the baby to giggle. “We’ll have fun without mama.”

“Daddy!” Ava suddenly screamed, and Clint felt his heart leap into his throat. “Daddy, look!”

“What?” Clint asked. He crouched in front of Ava with Rose and inspected her closely, trying to see what was wrong. “Ava, what happened?”

“My tooth!” She cried, thrusting her outstretched palm in the air and showcasing her tiny, pearly white baby tooth to the room. “It fell out!”

“Oh wow, Ava!” Natasha said, kneeling beside him. “Let me see.”

He used Natasha as a distraction so he could get his heart rate back under control, breathing in deeply through his nose and reminding himself that nothing bad had actually happened. His baby had lost her very first tooth, and along with the excitement came a pang of sadness as he realised just how much she was growing up. 

She was five. She wasn’t little like Rose anymore; her right knee was scarred from when she had skinned it and she could mostly dress herself now, and one day Clint wouldn’t have to pick her up and brush the gravel from her skin because she would do it without him, wherever she was in the world. He didn’t want to let her go, but he knew he would never hold her back.

“Dad, look!” Ava said, and Clint blinked himself back into the room.

“Oh my God,” he said, beaming. “Ava Elizabeth! Your very first lost tooth. Do ya know what that means?”

“No,” Ava said, all but bouncing in her seat. She grinned and he melted at the sight of the gaping hole left in the bottom row of her teeth. “What’s it mean?”

“Tooth Fairy,” Clint said seriously.

Ava’s jaw dropped open. “No freaking way.”

Wanda burst into laughter and Natasha snorted, trying to cover her smile with her hand. Clint sighed and gave Ava his best Disappointed Dad Look until she sheepishly apologised. Then, she bounded forward off her chair to show Wanda exactly where the tooth had come from, leaving Natasha crouched beside him.

“That must feel a little scary,” she said after a moment. “First tooth is a big deal.”

“Yea,” Clint replied. “It’s a huge deal. She’s not a baby anymore.”

Natasha put her hand on his arm and squeezed gently. “You’re a good dad, Clint. She’ll always be your baby.”

He glanced at her and realised just how close they really were. Rose was content to sit on his knee and suck on her thumb while the two of them just stared at each other, and Clint suddenly felt a burst of brilliant, insane courage, so brilliant that before he even really knew what he was doing or could think any of it through, he was saying—

“Do you wanna grab coffee sometime or something?”

Something passed over Natasha’s face. “I usually try to keep a strictly professional relationship with parents of the children I teach.”

Clint deflated. “That’s okay, I just—”

“But I think I would like to do that,” Natasha interrupted. “With you. Get a coffee with you.”

“Or something,” Clint said, feeling a smile turn up the corners of his mouth. “This weekend?”

“Rose and I will be there,” Natasha said softly. She squeezed his arm one last time before standing, ushering Ava along into the studio before the other girls arrived. 

Wanda held up a palm-sized plastic bag between her pointer finger and thumb and waved it in the air for him to see. “Your child’s disgusting tooth.”

Clint took it from her and pocketed it. “I might keep it.”

Wanda pulled a face that made Rose laugh, deep-bellied and loud. Clint couldn’t help but laugh, too, because he had a kid who was growing up and a date with the ballet teacher he most definitely had a crush on, and for the first time in a long time, the world was just good.

* * *

“Where are we going?” Ava asked for the umpteenth time as Clint led her to the diner. She dragged her feet, holding her favourite doll by the leg as they walked. “My foots are tired.”

“We just got out of the car,” Clint muttered. “C’mon, pumpkin. I’ll buy you a milkshake when we get inside.”

“Okay!” Ava agreed, starting to skip. She jumped up onto the sidewalk and ducked under Clint’s arm as he opened the door, before stopping dead in her tracks in the entrance. “Daddy, look! It’s Miss Natalia and baby Rose.”

Clint followed the direction of her tiny finger was pointed in and felt his heart stutter at the sight of Natasha, with her hair braided down her back and her leotard swapped for jeans and a comfortable hoodie. Rose was already in a high chair, her strawberry hair pulled into a tiny bun atop her head. They were beautiful, and he wanted to get to know them in a way that was more than in the _you’re-the-dance-teacher-and-I-watch-your-kid-and-I’m-divorced_ kind of way. 

“Hey,” he said when they reached the booth. Natasha looked up at him and smiled and the world pin-pricked to the two of them and their kids and the table she was sat at. “Sorry we’re late. Ava had a hair clip disaster.”

“It’s fine,” Natasha assured him. “I brought a colouring book for Ava.”

Clint paused and watched as Natasha slid a colouring book and gel pens over the table to Ava, who squealed in delight at the sight of kittens on the front page. Clint didn’t have much experience with going on dates; marrying young had changed a lot of things about his life, and even when Laura _had_ loved him they hadn’t had much time. 

And still. He hadn’t expected Natasha to bring anything for Ava, or to even think about her when their not-date hadn’t originally included her. Pepper had had to cancel her playdate in favour of going to New York for the break and he couldn’t be mad about it, even if it had broken Ava’s heart for all of ten minutes. Natasha hadn’t minded, though, and he was fast compiling a list of everything great she had done in the few short months since he had actually met her.

“What do you say?” Clint said, taking a seat opposite Natasha. 

Ava grinned. “Thank you sooooo much, Miss Natalia.”

“That’s okay,” Natasha said. “I thought it might be nice for her to have something to do.”

“Thanks,” Clint said. “I didn’t even think to bring anything. She can be pretty patient, but there’s only so many floor tiles she can count before it gets boring.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow. “She counts floor tiles?”

He hadn’t shared it with anyone before, but Ava was smarter than most people gave her credit for and grouping numbers was one of her favourite things to do. She was five, though, and he didn’t want to push anything whilst she was still so young. If she wanted to count one hundred leaves out before raking them in the yard, then so be it. 

“Yea, she likes numbers. Or any kind of learning, really.”

“She’s smart,” Natasha said. “I knew she was going to excel in ballet. She has more drive than half the mothers that—”

Natasha trailed off, glancing at Rose and smiling as the baby happily chewed a milk cookie. Clint wanted to ask why they treated her that way but figured it probably wasn’t the best way to start a conversation. He ordered himself a coffee and Ava a vanilla milkshake and then leant forward on the table, catching Natasha’s gaze.

“Tell me something fun about yourself,” he said. 

Natasha shrugged. “I’m Russian.”

“Wow,” Clint said, and Natasha swatted half-heartedly at his chest. “C’mon, you must have a better fun fact.”

“I can speak eight languages.”

Clint whistled. “Now that’s impressive. I can speak two, I guess? Although sometimes English just… No.”

“What’s your second language?” Natasha asked.

“ASL,” Clint said, pointing to the hearing aids that were hooked behind his ears. They were small, barely noticeable under the current state of his hair. “I’m partially deaf, so.”

“I should learn that,” Natasha said decisively. She thanked the waiter who brought their drinks over and then blew delicately on her tea. “So tell me, Clint. Do you ask all the dance teachers to coffee?”

“No,” Clint laughed, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. “Look, I think you’re great. And I think a lot of people have made up some pretty stupid rumous—”

“It doesn’t bother me anymore,” Natasha said softly. “There are a lot of things that people don’t know about me.”

Rose slammed her balled up fist down on the highchair, making a long, high-pitched sound in the back of her throat. Clint watched fat tears collect in her eyes and made a move to pick her up, but Natasha bet him to it. She cradled the baby against her chest, lips on her temple as she soothed her.

“ _Moloko_?” Natasha murmured, and Rose furiously yanked on the front of her hoodie. Natasha met his gaze, eyes steely. “I don’t apologise for feeding my—”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Clint answered. “What type of tea do you drink?”

Natasha blinked, clearly taken aback. “I like chamomile. It helps to calm my nerves and it soothes Rose’s belly.”

“I never really liked tea,” Clint started to say, then glanced at Ava as she elbowed him in the side. “What’s up, pumpkin?”

“Look at my colouring,” she said proudly, holding the page up for them both to see. “I did the lines. See? What’s it called, dad?”

“Colouring inside the lines,” he told her, inspecting the work. “Wow, Ava. This is really good.”

She climbed up onto her knees and leant in so she could whisper in his ear without Natasha hearing. “Can you pull it out for Miss Tasha?”

Clint smiled. “Course I can.”

Natasha’s face lit up when Ava slid the paper over to her carefully, smiling shyly. She held it up with one hand while she fed Rose and took note of every tiny detail, talking animatedly with Ava about her use of pink for the fur, and Clint could only sit back and watch, feeling some kind of emotion settle in his stomach that he hadn’t felt for a long time. 

“You should cover up,” a voice said from Clint’s right, and he turned to see a woman glaring at Natasha and Rose. “This is a restaurant.”

“This is a diner!” Ava piped up. “Right, daddy?”

“I’ll feed my child when she's hungry,” Natasha said coolly. “It’s none of your business.”

“It’s disgusting and—”

“You heard her,” Clint said. “It’s none of your business.”

The diner had fallen silent, and after another moment of huffing the woman went on her way. Clint couldn’t tell exactly what she was saying to the barista, but the finger she pointed back at them felt like salt on the wounds. Clint rolled his eyes as she finally left and then looked back to find Natasha glaring, too.

“I don’t need you to step in and save the day every time,” she said lowly, making sure that Ava couldn’t overhear. “I can stand up for myself.”

“You’re right,” Clint said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have butt in.”

Natasha fixed her hoodie and held Rose up to her shoulder to burp her, never once breaking eye contact with him. He stared right back, not sure what he was supposed to be seeing in her eyes, but after a moment something seemed to crack in the tough exterior she had plastered on in the face of the woman. 

“I don’t have many friends,” Natasha said after a beat. “The only family I have is Rose.”

“The only family I have is Ava,” Clint said. “By extension, Laura, sure. But she stopped being my wife a long time ago.” 

“You’re different,” Natasha said.

“I am,” Clint agreed. “Hey, do you wanna finish our drinks at my place? I still have Ava’s old bassinet, so Rose can take a nap. And somewhere in the house there’s sure to be black tea. I think.”

“Why?” Natasha asked.

_Because I like like you. You treat my daughter like a person. Your baby smiles at me and the world feels a little better. I don’t know much about you, but I think we might be the same._

“I want to know the real Natasha,” Clint said. “Fuck what those mums say.”

“Yea!” Ava cheered. “Fuck those mums!”

Natasha laughed, unable to stop it, and Clint thought that if he could listen to that for the rest of the day then some of his problems might go away. He laughed too, making a mental note to reprimand Ava later when they didn’t have company, but for now it felt good. His kid was smart and sometimes swore and Rose could understand two languages and the four of them made an unlikely group, but it worked and Clint didn’t think he would ever understand why. 

“Okay,” Natasha said when she could draw a breath. “Lead the way, Clint Barton.” 


End file.
